📒 to become hard, and often turn to ice, as a result of extreme cold; to make something do this
- Water freezes at 0°C.
- It's so cold that even the river has frozen.
- freeze something The cold weather had frozen the ground.
📒 if a pipe, lock or machine freezes, or something freezes it, it becomes blocked with frozen liquid and therefore cannot be used
- The pipes have frozen, so we've got no water.
- freeze up I kept the car running to stop the engine freezing up.
- freeze something Ten degrees of frost had frozen the lock on the car.
📒 when it freezes, the weather is at or below 0° Celsius
- It may freeze tonight, so bring those plants inside.
📒 to be very cold; to be so cold that you die
- Every time she opens the window we all freeze.
- Two men froze to death on the mountain.
- freeze somebody Two men were frozen to death on the mountain.
📒 to keep something, especially food, at a very low temperature in order to preserve it
- Can you freeze this cake?
- The organ samples were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen.
📒 to be able to be kept at a very low temperature
- Some fruits freeze better than others.
📒 to stop moving suddenly because of fear, etc.
- I froze with terror as the door slowly opened.
- (figurative) The smile froze on her lips.
- The police officer shouted ‘Freeze!’ and the man dropped the gun.
📒 when a computer screen freezes, you cannot move any of the images, etc. on it, because there is a problem with the system
📒 to stop a film or video in order to look at a particular picture
📒 to hold wages, prices, etc. at a fixed level for a period of time
- Salaries have been frozen for the current year.
- Prices have been frozen at this level for over a year now.
📒 to prevent money, a bank account, etc. from being used by getting a court order which bans it
- The company's assets have been frozen.
📒 to make you extremely frightened or shocked
📒 to suddenly stop because something has frightened or surprised you
- Jess froze in her tracks and took a deep breath.
📒 to suddenly make somebody stop by frightening or surprising them; to suddenly stop because something has frightened or surprised you
- The question stopped Alice in her tracks.
- Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks: what was he doing?
- (figurative) The disease was stopped in its tracks by immunization programmes.